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As we close out 2018 we felt it was time to revisit our list of top 10 Bill Monroe and Monroe related features published within the pages of the Mandolin Cafe. What follows is a summary and ranking of our Top 10 Monroe features to grace our web site.

True Vine historian lending his voice to Ken Burnís Country Music documentary.

Photo credit: Bill Graham

On a Wednesday morning, a master country music historian who has not shortchanged the mandolin sits behind a microphone. His insight from 85 years spent living and studying the "plain people's music" flows across the airwaves weekly from WORT, an FM radio station in Madison, Wisconsin.

"That was 'It Ain't Gonna Rain No More,' recorded by Wendall Hall in the early 1920s," says Bill Malone, tall and still spry as he leans gently toward the microphone.

You perhaps know the song's signature line from an old R. Crumb cartoon, or from listening to a version on the children's album by David Grisman and Jerry Garcia. Malone knows the song from its hillbilly music roots, or as the title of his enlightening 2011 book about Mike Seeger suggests, Music from the True Vine.
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Fairfax, Calif. — Peghead Nation, home of roots music instruction, gear, news and more is partnering with the Mandolin Cafe to offer visitors a first month free, or $20 discount off an annual subscription, when they sign up for any of their
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Marshall, Mich. — Northfield Mandolins and the Marshall Mando Summit is celebrating the release of the Marshall Mando Summit app for Android and Apple iOS with the giveaway of a Northfield Calhoun Mandolin, a $795 value.

To be eligible for the giveaway, mobile device users simply need to download and install the free app and then register from the top link in the app News section. Not just for just Marshall Mando Summit attendeees, the app is packed with information of interest to all mandolin family enthusiasts!

Wimberley, Tex. — Mandolinist Billy Bright and banjo legend Alan Munde have announced the release of Es Mi Suerte, the first new recording since their 2014 acoustic duet project Bright Munde.

Es Mi Suerte showcases a wide variety of instrumental mastery of Munde and Bright's years in acoustic roots music. Eight of the ten songs are originals, capturing the spirit of traditional and progressive bluegrass, 1950s folk, Texas waltzes, a blend of "Tex-Mex-Cajun"
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Arden, NC — A living legend recently inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, master mandolin player and singer Roland White is celebrating a trailblazing period of his storied career with new recordings of songs he helped make classic.
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Boston — David Benedict has announced the official release of his new solo recording, The Golden Angle, for Friday, October 26.

Already receiving glowing reviews ahead of its official release, The Golden Angle is poised to be one of the premier mandolin albums of the year and should in the Mandolin Cafe's opinion become a clear candidate for Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year for the International Bluegrass Music Association.
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Mandolin Orange songwriter Andrew Marlin is stepping out on his own for the new solo disc Buried in a Cape, a collection of self-penned instrumentals and modern fiddle tunes that shines a laser light on his prodigious eight string skills.

As much as Cape is a showcase for Marlin's keen sense of melody and thoughtful technique, it is truly a group effort. With his producer's hat on, Marlin let his players fly, recording the entire affair in three days at Nashville's The Butcher Shoppe, which, the composer notes proudly, features the Ryman Auditorium's old reverb plate.

Owensboro, KY — The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum's Grand Opening is October 18-20, 2018. The $15 million building at 311 West Second Street, in downtown Owensboro, Kentucky opens its doors with three days of music highlighting the rich past, dynamic present, and exciting future of bluegrass music.

Two of the famous concertos by Vivaldi appear here on this intensely romantic album. Martineau, one of today's greatest figureheads of classical mandolin, has recorded for NaÔve. We also finally get to hear, thanks to the world premiere recording, the legendary, virtuosic and poetic second concerto (of which the manuscript was lost) by Raffaele Calace (1863-1934).